It didn't take long for the news of that the long lost Avatar had finally woken up to spread through the healing house and into the town. The newly found buzz was growing with excitement as Katara's long journey was finally complete. Stories of their love and Katara's journey to the Spirit World had been the talk of the North Pole for many days now. The healers had seen her sitting by Aang's side for days. Now, the tale had become wilder and more romantic because the lovers had finally been reunited after five years!

Once thought to be dead, the Avatar was alive and well again. It was about time!

Within a few hours, the good news would make its way to the marker and on to trade ships. Soon, the whole world would know.

After watching Katara run off in search of Aang, Zuko had lingered in the empty bedroom. He stood inside and leaned against the wall by the door. His arms were crossed as he was in deep thought. None of the healers bothered him. Two women had come into the room to collect the left-over supplies and clean the room. They didn't pay much attention to him.

Zuko lacked motivation to move. He stared at his feet with his brows knitted. Katara was gone, and he was trying to decide if he felt relief or regret.

Then, he began to think about how he was going to talk to Aang. The thought made him nervous. Maybe he should go find him right now and get it over with. Or should he wait until Aang has had some time to recover? He'd hate to interrupt his time with Katara. They probably want to be alone right now.

What exactly would he say? He had to confess all of his shame in his feelings for Katara without all of his jealousy and bitterness flowing out. He had to beg for forgiveness, even if Aang was not willing to give it.

How would he begin? Zuko tried to picture himself approaching Aang… Hey, Aang… Zuko here.

Zuko shook his head. That didn't work well last time, there's no way it would work this time. Just because Aang had been gone for five years, it didn't mean that he had forgotten who Zuko was. There was no need for reintroductions.

No, something more causal. Something normal… So, Aang… How's life?

No, that seemed wrong. Other than getting his face stolen, Aang hadn't really had a life for five years.

Zuko sighed. He should probably skip that part. He should just skip to the main point.

Aang, I'm sorry to bother you, and I know that you and Katara are really happy right now- and stuff- and you probably don't want to talk to me, but… I just wanted to say that I'm sorry… for the whole me-falling-in-love-with-your-girlfriend-while-you-were-gone thing… it was an accident. Don't worry, I'm over it… well, no I'm not, but I'm trying… I'm just really sorry. That's all. Carry on.

Zuko cringed. This was going to go badly.

When he had finally had enough thinking, Zuko walked back out into the hallway and put both hands on the railing. He looked into the courtyard below. Then, he heard running footsteps and saw Toph sprinting around the corner. She was grinning and almost ran right past him.

She stopped suddenly a few feet in front of him. "Hey, Zuko!" She cried while panting. She opened her mouth to say something but stopped. She tilted her head and asked, "Whatcha doin' just moping around for?"

"I don't know," he sighed and closed his eyes.

"Well, quit," she laughed and punched his arm. "There's no time for moping!"

Zuko groaned in response and rubbed his arm. "Where… where's Aang?"

Toph paused and her large smile shifted into a smirk. "Probably making out with Katara in the stables."

Zuko studied the ground for a second and released a very small chuckle. "Yeah, that's what I thought," he sighed again. "Good. I'm glad they're back together."

Toph could feel his bad vibrations and it caused her face to soften. She put a hand on his arm. "Are you okay?"

Zuko nodded at her. "I'm fine."

"You sure? Your vibrations don't feel so good."

"I'll be fine," he groaned. He quickly pulled himself together. "How's Aang? I mean, did he handle everything alright?"

Toph snickered. "Yeah, he's taken it pretty well. There was a small mishap when he found out about Tenzin, but he recovered well."

"So, I guess you guys have explained everything to him by now, right?"

Toph's brow furrowed. She gave him a sympathetic smile. "You should talk to him yourself."

At first, he didn't respond. Then, he sighed again and pushed his hands into his pockets. "You know, I think I will go talk to him. When should I do it? Do you think him and Katara want to be alone for a while?"
Toph laughed loudly and punched him in the arm again. "Don't worry about it, just do what you need to do."

Zuko too a deep breath. "I'll give them some time."

Toph shrugged, "Whatever you want." Then, she continued her trek down the hallway in a wild sprint.

"… I really missed you."

"Yeah… me too. I mean- wait, no…"

"I really, really missed you. So, so much."

"Oh… Uh-huh?"

"Really. You don't even know…"

They were still entangled in each other's arms, breathing rapidly after their kiss. Neither were entirely aware of what they were saying, they were too overwhelmed to care. Snow was beginning to fall outside the stable, and more of the morning light was creeping in. Katara was lightheaded with pure, raw happiness. It only grew with every beat of her heart- and every breath that he took. There he was, just like he was, like he had never left. He was still her bright-eyed, loud laughing, gentle-hearted airbender, the boy in the iceberg, her brave Avatar, and her Aang: her best friend, her love, and her hope. It was almost too much. Nothing seemed real.

Meanwhile, Aang was lost and dizzy. He left like he had no idea who he was or where he was.

After a few quiet moments, Katara floated back down to Earth. She planted a kiss on the top of his nose and whispered, "Let's go back inside."

The suggestion made him more confused. He didn't know what she meant by inside. Instead of questioning it, he nodded. "Inside- sure, okay."

She reluctantly pulled back and took a hold of one of his hands. Her fingers laced between his, and she smiled with content. She began to lead him slowly back towards their bedrooms.

She had simply no idea where they were going other than "inside." She couldn't think that far ahead. She was too in the moment. Part of her wanted to keep him to herself for the rest of the afternoon. The other part was eager to go find Tenzin. She was excited to see what they looked like together and to start doing things as a family. Another part of her want to take him everywhere, show him everything, and show him to everyone. She wanted to do all of these things at once, and somehow, she felt like she could.

The two of then went back to the healing house, and Katara felt the eyes of the healers on them. She clutched his hand tighter and imagined the gossip that would be spreading about them:

Look! Did you see? That was them! The Avatar and his love.

He's awake.

They can finally be together.

I heard she brought him back from the dead.

She fought an evil spirit for him!

So romantic.

That's real love, right there. Surely, he knows it.

He had to know, Katara thought. She stole a glance at him and hoped to see it confirmed on his face, but his eyes were on the ground. He was frowning and didn't seem aware of anything around him.

The look on his face disappointed her a bit. Calling him out seemed childish, but she wanted to make him aware of what everyone already knew. She wanted to make him admit that he knew she loved him. There was no denying it.

She resisted the urge. He was probably still overwhelmed with everything. It was a lot to take in and deal with. It hadn't fully occurred to her until that moment that he may be having trouble dealing with things. They needed to have a talk. She could explain everything again in more detail and better than Sokka.

She just wished he'd smile. Suddenly, that was the only thing she wanted. He used to smile so easily, and she wished she could help him. What was bothering him? Didn't he know that he had brought the sun back to her life by simply existing?

She wanted to tell him, but she didn't know how to put it into words. There were too many, and she was afraid to scare him away. They didn't sound the same when spoken.

But he must know, after all she had done for him. Shouldn't take make everything else pale in comparison?

She knew that she'd done more than proven herself, proven that she wasn't the same old selfish Katara who had rejected him and ran away. The Katara that cowardly broke his heart and taken his love for granted.

No, she was no longer that Katara. She had surely proven hat she did want him. She loved him more and more every day if that was possible. There was no denying that, and he had to know.

Aang knew there was a word for the way he was feeling right now, but he couldn't think of what it was. As Katara took his hand and let him through the cold morning air, he wrestled with his thoughts, trying to put a finger on it.

Confusion? Befuddlement? Astonishment? Disbelief? Relief? Panic?

There was a word that meant all of that at once…His skull throbbed, and that unshakable chill still lingered even after they had made it inside. His heart felt excited and sick…

Maybe he was just unwell in general. It might even be that gin Suki had given him. He was dizzy, and wasn't sure exactly what was happening. Nothing felt real to him. Every vivid detail of that morning played over and over again in his head. It was giving him a migraine.

Three or four night ago, of so it felt like to him, Katara was in his bed at the South Pole. His heart exploded at the memory of her kissing him and telling him to stop thinking so much. The next day, she clamped her mouth shut, refused to speak to him, and ignored him as he said goodbye. He wanted nothing to do with him then.

But Katara from today, right now… what happened? He knew that five years had passed, Tenzin happened, Koh happened, and now it was like this. But what did it mean?

She had obviously changed her mind. She wanted him again. But did that mean that she wanted to marry him after all? Or what? Were they just going to be together like he had never asked? The thought of bringing up that subject filled Aang with a sharp dread. That topic had ruined everything in the first place, but if he didn't bring it up… what would happen? Would they stay in this weird limbo for forever?

Maybe it was all a fluke? Maybe he had asked her on a bad day. Maybe her hormones were already changing because she was pregnant.

No, he knew it didn't happen like that. She could have asked for more time instead of running away. That wasn't normal. It meant something, and he could trigger it again in a few years. He had no idea how to prevent it because he didn't know what caused it in the first place.

It would have made more sense to him if she would have treated him differently, like she had no plans of letting him swoop back into her life. Instead, she had made it feel like he was trapped in a too-perfect dream.

He tried to remember that it had been five years for her, but it was still hard for comprehend. She hadn't seen him in five years. This wasn't sudden for her.

Something about it was bothering him, but he couldn't place exactly what it was. It would come to him eventually, just like that word he couldn't think of.

Aang felt very overwhelmed. This was a wild dream he was thrown into, and it didn't make him fell happy. He felt manic, but everyone was telling him to let it go. He couldn't help it.

Since he was twelve, Aang had though of Katara as his future wife. Her rejection crushed him, and it was still fresh in his mind. Yet here he was with her so close to him. It was like it was a sick trick, and he was falling for it. He wanted to run away from her and from everyone. Maybe he just needed some time for himself to recover and digest all the new information he had been given.

But no, he couldn't flee now. Katara was holding his hand too tight.

He still couldn't understand it all. In fact, his confusion was worse now than it had been before. He couldn't get his brain to work, to sort it out. He was still so disoriented from waking up. Everything felt like a giant shock to him: he had a five year old son, he was no longer the last airbender, he had skipped five years of his life, all of his friends were at different stages in their lives, and if it were not for Katara, he'd still be faceless in the Spirit World.

He really needed her to explain that to him. Maybe he would feel better with the beginning of the story making sense. He needed to slowly put the pieces back together instead of jumping in five years too late.

Strangely, Katara led him to a different wing of the healing house. This one, he did not recognize from his earlier journey. Where were they going? Would they get there soon because he could feel curious eyes on him? As they passed healers, he dropped his eyes to the ground in an effort to ignore the stares. He was embarrassed. Some part of him felt like he didn't belong with her.

Katara clutched his hand tighter, defensively, he thought. He didn't know why though.

What was wrong? Why did he feel so self- conscious with her suddenly? Was it because if she had not done the impossible, he wouldn't be there? He could never repay her for that.

No… that wasn't it. Was it because he had abandoned her and Tenzin for such a long time? He didn't mean to, much like he didn't mean to abandon the world years ago either. Both times, other had suffered so much, and he could never make it up to them.

Were the healers thinking: He's finally back. Five years too late. I'm surprised she waited that long.

Aang cringed. That almost hurt worse than it did when he was twelve. That might explain his feelings a little, but that wasn't it. He glanced at Katara, and it hit him.

It was because she was older. She was older, but he wasn't. Or at least he didn't feel like it.

Before, he had noticed that she had changed. Now as he looked at her more carefully, he could spot differences. She certainly wasn't eighteen anymore. She was now twenty- three and a mother. It showed too. She had a different aura now, but it didn't change her beauty. In fact, it enhanced it. Her hair was longer, her hips were curvier, and her face had changed.

In the stables, the change didn't bother him because he was too focused on how beautiful she was. But now… would other people see it? It made him feel like she had passed him up and left him behind. He had always been younger than her, but it never bothered him before. But now, when people look at them side by side, would they think they didn't match?

Aang tried to push these thought out of his head, as he struggled to remind himself that he had changed too. He was no longer sixteen. He was twenty-one and had a beard. No one would see the difference, on the outside at least. Anyways, he was technically a hundred and twenty-one now…

That thought made him feel dizzy again. His head throbbed. Why couldn't his mind and body pick an age and stay there? Why was time so cruel to him?

"Aang?" Katara's voice pulled him from his thoughts.

He looked up at her and saw her curious eyes.

She was smiling gently at him. "What are you thinking about?"

He swallowed and hesitated. Finally, he shrugged. "Um… nothing."

For a faint moment, disappointment crossed her eyes, but she sighed and squeezed his hand again. "Okay but cheer up. Don't look so sad. You used to be so happy."

Aang wondered how many other commands she was going to give him this morning that he wouldn't be able to obey. "Sorry," he mumbled. "I have a lot on my mind."

"You just said that you weren't thinking about anything," Katara laughed lightly, and it was music to his ears. He never wanted her to stop.

"On, right." He shook his head. He wanted to give him a better explanation, but he couldn't. He didn't know what to say.

Katara watched him closely until she realized that he was done talking about it. She gave him a gentle smile and lifted his hand to her lips and kissed his fingers. It was strange, she had never done that before. It almost threw Aang off base.

Then it came to him- Whiplash! That's what he was feeling. Yes, that summed it up.

As they wondered up to the second floor, they were ambushed by Tenzin. He was still overflowing with energy. He and Ursa had spent the morning spreading the news that Avatar Aang was awake. Tenzin ran up to his parents with excitement as well as a handful of his scribbly drawings.

"Daddy! Look!" He yelled and fumbled through his collection of artworks. He picked out the one he thought would impress his father the most. "I made this for you."

Aang was once again ripped from his thoughts. This time, it was hearing the word "daddy" being applied to him. A smile instantly crossed his face as he took the drawing from Tenzin. Katara was glowing as she watched Aang smile and interact with their son. Tenzin was finally able to show his father his drawings.

Katara rubbed Aang's back as they both studied the drawing. She had already seen it and was wondering what Aang thought of it. She hoped that he was as proud as she always thought he would be.

The drawing depicted Appa as a large, round figure with zigzags for fur. He was flying through the sky, surrounded by big white clouds. A bright smile was on his face. Riding on top of him were three human figures. Two were large and one was small. They all had similar smiles as Appa. The smallest person had floppy black hair and was standing on Appa's tale. The taller people were in Appa's saddle. One had long, flowing hair and prominent hair loopies. She had waves of water coming from her, no doubt waterbending. The other was himself. He was beside Katara with oddly long limps and exaggeratedly large ears. Of course, a carefully drawn blue arrow was on his head. He and Tenzin were squigglebending, aka airbending swirls from their hands.

Aang assumes that Tenzin must have drawn this recently because he had added some extra shading to Aang's chin and head, for his newly grown hair.

"D'you like it?" Tenzin asked. He was growing anxious.

Aang just laughed, he couldn't help it. It erupted out of him uncontrollably. He was amused, but he also couldn't believe that the artwork or the artist existed. Yet, something tore at his heart. It was bittersweet remorse that he had missed out on all of Tenzin's life thus far.

Tenzin was uncertain if Aang was laughing because he liked the drawing or if he thought it was silly. Silly was not the intention.

"Its- um- It's great," Aang told him with delight. "I really, really great… I like Appa's smiley face."

Tenzin beamed so hard that Katara couldn't help but laugh.

"But," Aang continued, "Why am I the only one with ears?"

Tenzin flushed and sprung forward to defend his work. He got on his tiptoes and grabbed Aang's arm to pull the drawing back to his level. Aang knelt so they could look at it together.

Tenzin studied it carefully before saying in a know-it-all-way, "You do have ears like that! Momma doesn't, so it doesn't make sense to draw them. Her hair covers them. See, look!" Tenzin pointed to his actual mother. At his son's command, Aang looked to Katara. Something in his look made her face turn red and her heart flutter.

Aang turned his eyes back to the drawing. "Okay, you're right about her ears, but where are yours?"

"Mine aren't important," Tenzin said dismissively. He snatched the drawing out of Aang's hand, no longer satisfied with his perfect choice. "Look at this one daddy! This is when you saved the North Pole with Princess Yue. Momma and Uncle Sokka told me the story, and that's you inside the water-monster. Yue is flying up to the moon. I tried to draw it like they explained, but it is really hard to get your eyes and arrow to glow…"

He flipped to another drawing. "This is when Momma and Uncle Sokka found you in the iceberg. Ursa says it looks like you're stuck in a weird cloud, but its an iceberg… and this one is a picture of everyone, all together. See, there's you, that's me," he pointed to each figure as he spoke, but Aang could have figured most out on his own. "That's Momma, and Appa. There's Zuko and Ursa, Uncle Iroh, Aunite Toph, and Uncle Sokka and Aunite Suki."

Aang thought for a moment before he grinned. "Where's Momo?"

"Ah! Wait!" Tenzin cried in dismay. He took the drawing back and searched it as if Momo was just hiding. "I forgot Momo!"

Katara laughed. "How could you forget Momo?"

"Well," Aang chuckled and stood. "You're already a better artist than Sokka."

"Hey!" He heard Sokka shout in protest. He and Suki were walking down the hall towards them. "That's not nice. I work really hard!"

Ursa walked forward. "Has anyone seen my dad?"

Katara's brow furrowed. It felt like forever ago that she had stumbled into an empty room with Zuko. "No," she answered slowly." I don't know where he went."

"Hey, Avatar Aang!" She shouted brightly at him, not very concerned about where her father was anymore. "You gotta say hi to Uncle Iroh. He's up now, and I told him you were awake."

Aang tilted his head slightly to one side. He couldn't believe that Zuko and Iroh were here in the North Pole. Who was running the Fire Nation?

"Okay, sure," he nodded, feeling dizzy and cold again.

Sokka noticed the strange shift in his friend. "How about we have some breakfast first. I'm starving."

"We can all eat breakfast together!" Tenzin cried in excitement. He took ahold of Aang's free hand. "We can eat, and then we can go outside, and I can show you my airbending! You wanna see it, right Daddy?'

"Oh! Yeah, I almost forgot about that. I'd love to see it."

"Avatar Aang," Ursa started to say. "Should I call you that or Uncle Aang, or maybe-"

"Daddy, are you gonna teach me airbending? Can I get arrows like you? I have my own glider too. We can fly together!"

"Well-"

Tenzin continued. "Can we go exploring today?" Tenzin swung his father's hand as they began to walk toward the dining hall. "We can fly somewhere on Appa."

"Ooh!" Ursa joined in. "We can go see that big wall again!"

"Yeah!" Tenzin hopped in excitement. "Can we, daddy? Can we? We've only seen it once, and we were in a hurry."

"Can I come too?" Ursa begged. "And my dad? And Uncle? Please?"

Aang's head was beginning to throb harder at the chaos around him. It all still felt unreal, and another chilled threatened to rip him open. For half a second, all he could do was blink. He feared that the inky spots in his vision would not go away. Nevertheless, he stopped walking and pulled both of his hands free. He pressed his fingers to his eyelids for a moment.

"What's wrong, Daddy?"

"Uncle Aang, what's the matter?"

"Aang?" Katara called his name softly and put a hand on his cheek to comfort him. "Are you okay?"

He quickly nodded to get her to stop fussing over him. "I'm fine."

She just looked at him. "You know, we don't have to eat breakfast with the others if you don't want to." She whispered to him. "You can say hi to everyone when you feel up to it."

"No, really. I'm fine." He gave her what he hoped was a reassuring smile.

It either worked, or she was too eager to believe he was okay because she had let it okay. "Just making sure"

"Hey!" Sokka came back around the corner ahead of them. "Are you two coming to breakfast or not?"

"We'll be there in a second, Sokka." She glanced at the children. "You two, you guys go ahead with Uncle Sokka and Auntie Suki. We'll be right there."

The children ran off, and Aang felt a timid tug at his elbow. He turned around and was greeted by Zuko, who looked stiff and uncomfortable.

"Hey, Aang. Can we talk?"

Katara glared at Zuko's intrusion, but Aang didn't notice. He simply gaped at Zuko in surprise.

"Hey there, Zuko," Aang stammered, perplexed by Zuko's odd greeting. It was the first time he had seen him in five years, and this was how he chose to speak to him? "Its… good to see you too?"

"Oh! Right, sorry. I'm glad to see your up and talking… and stuff." Zuko scratched his head awkwardly. "How… how are you doing?"

Aang paused and looked at Katara. Her expression was unreadable. So, he simply shrugged. "I'm fine. Where have you been hiding all morning?"

"I haven't been hiding!" Zuko said defensively.

Aang blinked at him with wide eyes. He chuckled uneasily. "Okay? Sorry."

"I just… I really need to talk to you." Zuko insisted. He quickly looked at Katara. "Can I borrow him for a minute?"

Before she could answer, another loud voice boomed down towards them.

"So, He's finally awake! It's about time!" The loud voice seized Aang in a bone crushing hug when he turned around to meet him.

All of the air in his lungs escaped, but he managed to squeak out a, "Hi, Uncle."

"It's good to see you again."

"It's good to… be back?" That was going to take some time to get used to.

"I hear there's a feast waiting for us," Iroh put his hand on Aang's back and began to lead him in the direction of the dining hall. "You must be hungry. I can't imagine not eating for five years!"

This comment made Aang laugh uncontrollably along with Iroh.

They left Katara and Zuko behind. Katara shrugged at him. "I haven't gotten any alone time either."

"Aang," Zuko insisted again. "I need to talk to you."

Iroh waved his nephew off. "Zuko, always so serious. This is a happy occasion. Come along. Let's have a lovely breakfast, and we can catch Aang up on everything he's missed together.

Zuko grunted in response and pulled on his hair. Uncle had been pestering him to make decision for over a week. When he finally had the courage to do something about it, Uncle was not coming to his aid. He was working against him.

Reluctantly, Zuko followed behind Katara with his feet dragging in the snow.